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Russia to deploy missiles on NATO missile shield concerns

Other News Materials 24 November 2011 02:06 (UTC +04:00)
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday ordered army commanders to prepare to deploy ballistic missiles to an enclave next to Lithuania and Poland, as a counter to a planned NATO missile defence system.
Russia to deploy missiles on NATO missile shield concerns

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday ordered army commanders to prepare to deploy ballistic missiles to an enclave next to Lithuania and Poland, as a counter to a planned NATO missile defence system, DPA reported.

The Iskander, a road-mobile weapons system, would be based in Russia's Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad, he said.

Fired from Kaliningrad, Iskander missiles, which NATO calls SS-26 Stone, could reach targets in NATO countries in five minutes or less.

Other Russian strategic weapons capable of striking European targets in minutes could be based in southern and western Russia, Medvedev said in a speech from the central city Gorky, according to the Interfax news agency.

Russia will field new defence systems for its own missiles, which would allow them to penetrate the planned NATO missile shield, he said.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen late Wednesday called the move "disappointing."

The NATO system "is designed to defend against threats emanating from outside Europe and is not designed to alter the balance of deterrence," he said.

"The suggestion that deployment of missiles in the areas neighbouring the alliance is an appropriate response to NATO's system is very disappointing," Rasmussen said in a statement.

The United States also stressed that there was no need for Russia to take military countermeasures.

"We've been open and transparent with Russia on our plans for missile defence for a long time. We believe our missile defence reflects a growing threat to our allies from Iran, that we're committed to deterring," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

"We've been clear all along, for many years, now that this system is not directed against Russia. In multiple channels, we've explained to Russian officials that the missile defence systems being deployed in Europe do not and cannot threaten Russia's strategic deterrent."

Russia will continue to negotiate with NATO and the US, which has pushed hard for the European missile shield system, "until the very last moment," Medvedev said.

"But they (NATO and the US) are not interested in a compromise," he said.

Failure to reach agreement could provoke an arms race, he said.

Russia and NATO are sharply at odds over a Washington-initiated plan to set up a missile shield system to protect NATO members from a possible strike out of Iran.

Rasmussen said he welcomed Medvedev's willingness to keep the door for talks open.

"Cooperation on missile defence would clearly show that NATO and Russia can build security together, not against each other," he said. "It would allow us to deal with new threats and old suspicions at the same time. It would show that cooperation, not confrontation, is the way ahead."

The Kremlin has said it considers the shield a direct threat to its nuclear deterrent force, and, if the system is put into operation, it will improve its own attack systems to prevent NATO and the US from gaining a first-strike capacity against Russia.

NATO officials have said the system is not aimed at Russia and does not threaten Russian missiles.

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